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SARAJEVO, March 30 (FENA) - The final decision on the Sarajevo-Belgrade motorway construction will be made in mid this year when Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan visits Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Turkey's position on the Election Law of BiH is that it is an internal issue of each state, while in connection to activation of Membership Action Plan with NATO for BiH, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said that the Russian Federation perhaps wants to postpone the activation of MAP for BiH.
As the Turkish Prime Minister said at the press conference in Sarajevo, during the aforementioned visit of the Turkish President to BiH, we will have a clearer picture of the details for the motorway and the final decision on the model for the construction should be reached.
“We will establish a financial framework for this project, the way in which we will find the financial sources for it and see whether it will be a project on the principle "build, utilize, handover" or some other way in which Turkey would provide support to this project,” said Yildirim.
Commenting on BiH membership in NATO, activation of the Membership Action Plan (MAP) for BiH and Russia's influence in that respect, he said that NATO is a special kind of organization, and Russia is a special kind of power.
He also said that the Russian Federation claims that the activation of the MAP for BiH would cause instability because of the Serb side in BiH, and in connection to the elections that will be held in October this year.
“The Russian Federation perhaps wants to postpone the adoption of the MAP for BiH, but the country and its people have already made a decision on the issue. We see efforts that BiH is investing in acquiring membership in NATO,” said Turkish Prime Minister and reiterated that Turkey will continue to support BiH's aspiration to become NATO member state.
Speaking about the Sarajevo-Belgrade motorway, he noted that this road will connect Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia and will be of circular shape and at the same time a transit route, The part of the motorway that will go through Žepće, Tuzla, Brčko and Bijeljina will be 142 kilometers long, and the other part through Sarajevo, Pale, Goražde and Višegrad 108 kilometers.
“This means that we need to build 252 kilometers of roads in both directions, as one section of 112 kilometers in length has already been built, so, it is 360 kilometers in total,” said Yildirim.
Referring to the Election Law of BiH, the Turkish Prime Minister underlined that the law must be just and treat all the citizens of BiH equally and that the citizens of this country should be the ones to decide on it.
"Interventions from outside would only make it more difficult to reach a solution because imposition of a system and reforms might be an attack on the sovereignty of a state, which in our opinion Turkey, is wrong,” he said.
Speaking about investments, he said that Turkey not only invests in BiH, but also in all Balkan countries and beyond, in Africa, the Caucasus and Central Asia.
"When we expand the Free Trade Agreement this year, we might have a more extensive increase in the volume of trade between both countries, which will encourage Turkish investors to invest more in BiH," he said.
He noted that Turkish companies and businesses are coming to BiH, but he believes their number could be bigger.
“Some companies have certain problems in BiH, for example with raw materials supply, which we have conveyed during this visit and I believe that the ministers in BiH will try to solve these problems,” he said.
He expressed satisfaction with the fact that this year exports of BiH to Turkey are higher than imports and promised that Turkey will do everything in the future to advance this economic cooperation.
Speaking about Turkey's relations with Russia, Turkish Prime Minister said that they are good and that this is natural because they are neighbors and have been for centuries and have shared border.
He assessed that the good relations between Turkey and Russia, in the context of the countries of the Western Balkans, can only bring good things.
"This can reflect positively on this region, whether we are talking about the ethnic groups, Serbs, Croats or Bosniaks, or the entities. Turkey and Russia can work together to improve cooperation in BiH," said Yildirim.
He also added that the good relations with Russia do not mean bad relations with the United States, since Turkey has different ways of cooperation with both of these countries and at different levels and dimensions.
Turkish Prime Minister also commented on the problem of terrorism, especially singling out the terrorist organization Fetullahci (FETO), which he described to be a global problem, and not just Turkey's problem.
He recalled that this organization is active in more than 60 countries, including the Balkan countries, stressing that BiH must be particularly cautious.
Therefore, Prime Minister Yildirim concluded that it is Turkey's duty "to warn its friends in BiH to be cautious about this issue", because FETO could certainly cause serious problems in BiH as well.
Turkey's Prime Minister today ends his two-day visit to BiH. He arrived at the invitation of the Chairman of the BiH Council of Ministers Denis Zvizdić.
Prime Minister Yildirim met with numerous domestic officials during his visit to BiH, among others, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of BiH, members of the collegia of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH and members of the BiH Presidency.
(FENA) S. R.
